Such a device is known from EP-A-0 846 923.
Such a recuperative climate conditioning system is normally used for cooling hot humid air to climatise areas. With cooling an area, the heat exchanger element for the cooling is generally placed in the duct for the air supply to the area, and the heat exchanger element for the heat to be removed from the cold-heat machine is generally placed in the duct for the air exhaust to the outside. With heating an area, the heat exchanger element for heating is generally placed in the duct for the air supply to the area, and the heat exchanger element for extracting the heat from the outside air to the cold-heat machine is generally placed in the duct for the air exhaust to the outside.
By placing the heat exchanger elements according to the prior art in the medium flows that exit the heat exchanger, only part of the potential enthalpy is used in the heat exchanger.
A greater temperature difference is achieved across the heat exchanger and thus also a greater range in which the latent heat is transferred by placing the cooling heat exchanger element in the medium flow that goes into the heat exchanger on the cold side of the heat exchanger and by placing the heating heat exchanger element in the medium flow that goes out of the heat exchanger on the hot side of the heat exchanger.
With this well-known device, only perceptible heat is exchanged between the two medium flows. By applying the Carnot circuit, the temperature difference between the medium flows and thus the transfer of heat is admittedly increased, but this requires a heat exchanger with an even greater transfer of heat. Such a heat exchanger with a greatly increased heat transfer is obtained because the heat exchanger is set for the exchange of both thermal energy and phase transition energy. A heat exchanger that is set for the transfer of phase transition energy is also known as an enthalpy recuperator. Such a device is itself known from EP-A-1 485 657.